PYHO: Why I hate Urgent Care

The last 15 days have been rough in our house.  B has been battling illness for what seems like forever.  I feel so horrible for her.  It began with a runny nose and a pesky cough, which prevented her from sleeping (therefore, neither did we).  After about 7-10 days, her body wasn't fighting what I had thought was a pesky virus.  I had gotten sick and better in that amount of time, already.  B was still not herself.  On Sunday, my tired ass was fed up.  I took her to Urgent Care, since her Ped wasn't open to see her.  Big Mistake...HUGE!  I curse myself for not driving her directly to Children's to be seen.  I have been scolding myself for 4 days now that I waited as long as we did to have her seen. 

This is our sick baby girl in hubs' shirt, after she puked all over her clothes at T's soccer practice.  Since I wasn't there (I'm always the prepared one, of course), hubs didn't have the baby bag.  No bag = no change of clothes.  Poor sweetie. 

I was trying to be the calm parent of 2.  I was trying not to be an alarmist.  All the while, she's struggling through and we are not sleeping...night after night after night.  I figured it was a virus.  I was partially right.

So onto my hatred for Urgent Care.  First off, it's URGENT yet doesn't open until 8:30am every day.   What if something "urgent" happens before 8:30 or after 10pm??  Then, with not a soul in waiting room except me and my crying baby girl, I waited....and waited....and waited to be seen.  An hour.  That's how long I waited before we were even brought into a room.  Did I mention the people in front of me had come AND GONE..but I was still in the waiting room?!  Yep. 

What you have to understand about my personality is, I HATE confrontation.  I get very uncomfortable in certain situations.  I'm not good at advocating for myself.  I've always been a bit of a pushover.  I'm an easily embarrassed, wimp.  So when I started pacing, I knew it was a bad sign.

When we got in the room, the nurse came in and took a spotty-at-best overview of B's symptoms.  Oh, let me not forget to mention that within the paperwork I filled out at registration was no medical history form.  I mean...who treats an 11 month old baby without medical history?!  WTF.  But, back to wimpy me...I didn't advocate for my child.  Shame on me.  Don't worry...I do...eventually.

The office didn't even have a scale to measure my child's weight.  Yes folks, we weighed her via displacement (the ole you two get on, then give me the baby, and subtract). Accurate. ::eye roll::  After the no medical history, lame nurse, and faulty weighing...I was already pretty worked up (oh and that 1 hour waiting didn't help my nerves, either!).  Then the nurse left, and I waited...AGAIN...20 minutes, 30 minutes.  All the while, B was screaming bloody murder.  I had had enough.  I was done.  My patience was out.  I was gonna raise some hell. 

Another thing you must know about me is, I may be a pushover most of the time...but when I switch over to the dark side...it's like Jekyll and Hyde.  I go from 0 to 60 quickly.  I'm a Gemini, and all, two personalities is quite accurate (just ask my hubby...sorry Babe).  I stormed out of the room and down the hall.  I glanced over to see the only Dr typing away at the computer and all 3 nurses hanging out in front doing God knows what with the non-existent patients.  I wigged.  "Is anyone going to see us.  Is anyone going to help us.  I've been waiting a ridiculously long time with an 11 month old baby.  I just want someone to see us.  This is ridiculous.  What is going on here?" (I wasn't exactly calm, or quiet, when I was saying this).  The nurse said "excuse me, but, there are other people here in rooms, waiting".  I then said "Where?  Where are these people?  I saw the two people in front of me walk out the door while I was in the waiting room".  Then I said a few other choice things under my breath and stomped back to my vacant room.

Guess what folks...the Dr appeared within 30 seconds (imagine that).  Score one for mommy.  Unfortunately, he was nothing short of a dick.  Could it have been me?  Probably.  But...WTF!  So, he proceeded to talk down to me, like I was some complete idiot (background...I have a microbiology degree, a bio masters and another kid at home...not exactly a novice here).  I was infuriated.  I was even more pissed when he looked at her for 2.2 seconds, told me that babies don't get strep (didn't even ask if we had another kid who could have passed it at home), she had no ear or throat infection and that it was just a virus...but...(here's the kicker)...he'd be glad to write me a prescription for amoxicillin, just in case.  WTF!  It's a virus...but you're writing me a prescription?!  What is going on here?!

I had to deal with the bitchy nurse when I checked out.  She was less than pleasant.  Needless to say, they didn't ask me to fill out a comment form (like they have before)...wonder why.

Long story, short...okay...not really...we didn't trust anything this quack and his lame team told us, so we took her to our pedi the next day.  Guess what...RSV AND an ear infection that the doc-in-the-box didn't catch.  Could it have been the 2.2 second "exam", perhaps.  Today, 4 days later, she's still feverish, puking, lethargic, snotty and not eating much of anything.  This sucks.

So is the story of why I hate Urgent Care, and I will tell anyone who will listen to never, ever go there!  Email me if you're local and want the name.  I'll gladly bad-mouth them some more.

These are pictures sent to me by my MIL, who is watching our sick LO.  She is definitely not feeling herself.  Breaks mommy's heart.

Pouring My Heart out with Shell @ Things I Can't Say...come play!